Soccer Regroups For Big 12 Opener

By Athletics Communications

University of Oklahoma

SEPTEMBER 23, 2002

Sept. 23, 2002

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NORMAN, Okla. -- Oklahoma returns to the friendly confines of John
Crain Field this weekend after a tough road trip to California. The Sooners begin
Big 12 Conference play by hosting Baylor at 7:30 p.m. Friday night and Texas Tech
at 1 p.m. on Sunday.

The first 250 fans through the gates for the Baylor game Friday evening will receive
OU Rally Rags. Sunday's game against Texas Tech is designated as Super Sooner
Soccer Sunday. Fans showing their OU-South Florida football ticket stub at the
gate will receive $2 admission to the game.

Oklahoma (6-2) was blanked, 4-0, by No. 2 Stanford on Sept. 20 and again shutout,
4-0, by defending national champion and No. 10-ranked Santa Clara on Sept. 22
at the Nike Stanford Invitational in Stanford, Calif.

OU goalkeeper Catherine
Wade survived a barrage of shots -- 42 to be exact -- in the two games against
the West Coast soccer powers. The sophomore from Midland, Texas gave up eight
goals but had 14 saves over her 165 minutes in the box.

The Sooners took nine shots with four on goal this weekend. Krissy
Dawson (Peoria, Ariz.) had five shots in the Santa Clara game while Shannon
Wing (Broken Arrow, Okla.) and Lauren
MacIver (Tulsa, Okla.) each had one. MacIver also took one shot against Stanford
as did Becky
Nelson (Tulsa, Okla.).

"We learned that you can't get away with making mistakes at this level," said
head coach Randy
Evans. "It was great for us to experience the speed displayed by these top
teams in the country. This will really help us now that we are set to begin Big
12 play. Again, we can take a lot of confidence away from our performance this
weekend."

Previewing Baylor
The Bears have an identical 6-2 record as OU. Baylor opened up 5-0 to begin the
season with wins over Mississippi State and Rice before falling to Arizona State,
1-0, on Sept. 13.

Most recently, the Bears defeated Northern Arizona, 2-0, on Sept. 15 and lost
to SMU, 4-2, on Sept. 20. The SMU loss was the first home defeat of the season
for Baylor, snapping an eight-game home winning streak for the Bears that dated
to Oct. 5, 2001.

10 Baylor players have scored this season with Tiffany Boshers (30), Kristin Ruef
(29), and Ginny Rosario-Tull (28) taking the majority of the shots.

Baylor leads the overall series with Oklahoma, 3-1-1, and defeated the Sooners
last season in Waco, 3-1, on Oct. 16, 2001.

Previewing Texas Tech
Texas Tech (2-6) dropped its sixth straight match on Sept. 22, when it fell to
Florida Atlantic, 4-2, at the Texas A&M Fazoli's Classic in College Station, Texas.
The six game losing streak matched the longest in school history as they also
lost six straight in the 2000 and 2001 seasons.

Junior Catie Arsenault is the only player for the Red Raiders to score more than
one goal overall this season. Seven other players have one goal each. Texas Tech
is averaging 11.2 shots per game.

Texas Tech leads Oklahoma, 4-1, overall but the Sooners got their first win in
the series last season in Norman, 3-0, on Oct. 5, 2001.

Home, Sweet Home
Oklahoma boasts a four game winning streak at John Crain Field dating back to
last season. The Sooners have already knocked off No. 18 SMU and Arizona at home
in 2002. Over the past two seasons, OU is 10-1-1 (.875) at home and 15-5-2 (.727)
over the past three seasons.

Gunning For Goals
Preseason All-Big 12 forward Logan
Womack (Norman, Okla.) has 24 career goals and needs just three more to break
the school's all-time career goals mark of 26 set by Jonette
Coquat over the 1998-2001 seasons.

Dawson's Peak
Senior forward Krissy
Dawson (Peoria, Ariz.) moved into a second place tie with Heather
Morrison on the career assists chart with nine. Former Sooner Jonette Coquat
leads in the category with 15 career assists from 1998-2001.

Wingin' It
Senior Shannon
Wing (Broken Arrow, Okla.) has eight starts in eight games this season extending
her streak to 65 straight starts for OU over the past four seasons. Wing has 18
shots and two goals for the Sooners in 2002 and 147 shots and 12 goals for her
career.

Big 12 Honors
Catherine
Wade (Midland, Texas) was named Big 12 Defensive Player of the Week on Sept.
16. The sophomore, with nine career shutouts, is just three away from breaking
the school career record for shutouts (11). Wade has contributed four shutouts
already this season. Oklahoma leads in the Big 12 in shutouts this season with
five.

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